Widow - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition widow

Definition :

Widow, a woman whose husband is dead and who has not remarried, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1592.

A widow is entitled equally with next of kin to administration of her deceased husband's estate subject to the discretion of the Court [see In the Estate of Paine, A.J., (1916) 115 LT 935]

In regard to deaths after 1925, by the Administration of Estates Act, 1925, s. 46:-

(1) The residuary (real and personal) estate of an intestate shall be distributed in the manner or be held on the trusts mentioned in this s., namely:-

(i) If the intestate leaves a husband or wife (with or without issue) the surviving husband or wife shall take the personal chattels (q.v.) absolutely and in addition the residuary estate of the intestate shall stand charged with the payment of a net sum of 1000l. free of death duties and costs to the surviving husband or wife (with interest from date of death at 5 per cent. per annum until paid or appropriated and subject thereto as provided).

(a) If the intestate leave no issue, upon trust for the surviving husband or wife during his or her life;

(b) If the intestate leaves issue, upon trust as to one-half for the surviving husband or wife during his or her life nd subject to such life interest, on the statutory trusts for the issue of the intestate; and as to the other half, on the statutory trusts for the issue of the intestate, but if those trusts fail or determine in the lifetime of a surviving husband or wife of the intestate, then upon trust for the surviving husband or wife during the residue of his or her life.

(ii) If the intestate leave issue but no husband or wife, the residuary estate of the intestate shall be held on the statutory trusts for the issue.

And see (English) Legitimacy Act, 1926, s. 9, as to rights of succession of a bastard and succession to a bastard dying intestate. The Statutory Trusts (s. 47) are, in effect, for the children living at the death of the intestate and attaining 21 years of marrying, and the issue of any child predeceasing the intestate, such issue being living at the death of the intestate and attaining 21 years or marrying, per stirpes. (q.v.), in equal shares, so that no issue takes more than a parent's share or takes if his parent is living at the death of the intestate. A married infant can give a receipt for income. The statutory powers for advancement, maintenance, accumulation of income and hotchpot (q.v.) are to apply and the personal representatives may allow infants to use personal chattels.

If the intestate leaves no issue surviving him or her and attaining a vested interest, then subject to the life interest of the surviving husband or wife the residuary estate is to be held:-

(iii) For the intestate's father and mother, if both survive him or her, absolutely, if not,

(iv) For the one parent, if any surviving, absolutely, if none,

(v) For brothers and sisters of the whole blood of the intestate under the trusts, if none,

(vi) For brothers and sisters of the half blood of the intestate under the statutory trusts, if none,

(vii) Grandparents of intestate, if more than one, in equal shares absolutely, if none,

(viii) Uncles and aunts of the whole blood of the intestate under the statutory trusts, if none,

(ix) Uncles and aunts of the half blood in like manner, if none of the above,

(x) For the surviving husband or wife absolutely.

'Statutory trusts' in this connection means the persons named and their issue respectively attain-ing vested interests upon trusts corresponding to s. 47, supra [see s. 47 (3)]. Husband and wife, beneficiaries, count as two persons.

In default of the above, see BONA VACANTIA. See also DOWER; INHERITANCE; DISTRIBUTION, STATUTE OF; INTESTATES' ESTATES ACT (for deaths before 1926).

Widows are privileged by many statutes-see, e.g., PENSIONS; ACTIO PERSONALIS; HUSBAND AND WIFE.

Widow, is a woman who has survived a man to whom she was lawfully married and who was his wife at the time of his death. A woman surviving a man with whom she has gone through the ceremony of marriage, but with regard to whom she had obtained a declaration of nullity of marriage is not his widow, Stroud's Judicial Dictionary, 5th Edn., Vol. 5, p. 2853.

Widow, is a woman whose husband died and who has not married again, Oxford Large Print Dictionary, 3rd Edn., p. 936.

Widow, is familiar, well fixed, certain and definite and it is defined, both popularly and legally, to mean a woman who has lost her husband by death and has not taken another; the surviving lawful wife of a descendent; a wife who outlives her husband, one whose husband is dead; a surviving wife; and it has been said that in legal writings 'widow' is an additio given to a woman who is unmarried and whose husband is dead, Sunita Devi Somani v. Kedarnath Gupta, 1987 Jab LJ 450: AIR 1987 MP 65; Rambai v. Ramesh Kumar, AIR 1996 MP 144. [See also M.P. Accommodation Control Act (41 of 1961), s. 23J]

Means a woman who has lost her husband by death, and has no application to a divorced woman where husband and wife are divorced, the wife after husband's death is not his widow and entitled to dower, Words and Phrases, Permanent Edition, Vol. 45, p. 141.